The following amendment have been selected: amendment 1 in the name of Rebecca Evans.

We'll now move on to item 8, which is the Plaid Cymru debate on free school meals eligibility. And I call on Siân Gwenllian to move the motion. Siân. 

Motion NDM7598 Siân Gwenllian

To propose that the Senedd:

Calls on the Welsh Government to ensure that the unallocated fiscal resource in the draft 2021-22 budget is used in the final budget for 2021-22 to expand free school meal eligibility criteria to include all children in families in receipt of universal credit or equivalent benefit and any child in a family with no recourse to public funds.

Motion moved.

Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. As a matter of principle, every child should receive free school meals. To get to that point, we need planning and to do so in a phased way. The first step is to start to include the 70,000 children living below the poverty line in Wales, and that is what our motion puts forward today. They are missing out at the moment, mainly because their parents are in low-paid employment. In supporting our motion, you would also be supporting the 6,000 children in Wales who don’t qualify for free school meals because their families have no recourse to public funds.

Today, therefore, we are calling on the Welsh Government to ensure that some of the fiscal resources that are as yet unallocated in the draft budget for 2021-22 are used in the final budget for 2021-22 in order to expand the free school meals eligibility criteria to include all children in families in receipt of universal credit or equivalent benefits or any child in a family with no recourse to public funds.

According to surveys by the Welsh Government itself, the cost of doing what we are calling for, the cost of expanding school meals to all children in families in receipt of universal credit, would be between £33 million and £101 million—the lowest figure if only one child in every family were to take advantage, and the highest if three were to do so. Now, it's clear that Wales will receive more funding from Westminster. Last week, there was an announcement on further Barnett consequentials of £650 million, which could be carried over into next year. This is in addition to the £350 million that the Government can also carry over into next year from this year. So, there is no excuse now for not expanding eligibility. The funding is available to be allocated for the purpose that we set out in our motion today.

In terms of the budgetary process, then today is the last chance for the Senedd to have a meaningful vote on the issue of extending free school meals. The final budget is expected next week; it’ll be published on 2 March, and discussed on 9 March. So, it is crucial that all Senedd Members make their views clear to Government by supporting our motion today so that the appropriate fiscal adaptations can be made.

It is truly disappointing to see that the Government has tabled a delete-all amendment to our motion, and rather notes that it is unacceptable in a modern society that children still go hungry. Well, I would agree. But an amendment simply noting that but refusing to do anything to resolve the issue is good for nothing for the poorest children who are missing out on free school meals. In addition to that, it's very disappointing to see the Government ignoring its own child poverty review. This report noted that expanding free school meals to a broader range of children and young people is the one step that would help most in tackling child poverty—the one thing—and yet again the Government continues to reject that, although the funds are available. It is disappointing and entirely unbelievable, if truth be told.

The Llywydd took the Chair.

The reality is that Wales provides fewer cooked free school meals to its children at the moment than any other nation within the UK. In Scotland and England, every child of school age, in the first three years of their education, is in receipt of free school meals, whatever the family income. In Northern Ireland, the earnings threshold for those in receipt of universal credit is set far higher, helping to support more working families. Providing a balanced, nutritious meal, locally sourced, would improve child health and educational attainment. A sufficient free school meal will enhance concentration throughout the day and will give children an opportunity to taste new foods. Expanding eligibility, and, in future, moving forward to introducing a universal approach, would reduce inequality related to education, health and other areas. It would be a means of supporting the foundational or circular economy that this Government is so determined to promote. It would create jobs locally, support farmers to take foods from farm to fork, supporting local businesses, creating local food chains, and contributing to reducing emissions. We would be doing all of this and providing nutritious food for Welsh children. I urge you to support our motion today.

I have selected the amendment to the motion, and I call on the Minister for Education to move that amendment formally.

Amendment 1—Rebecca Evans

Delete all and replace with:

1. Believes that it is unacceptable in a modern society that children still go hungry and that we will continue to step-up all our efforts in the provision of free school meals to stamp out the scourge of poverty and hunger.

2. Welcomes that the Welsh Government:

a) provided over £50 million of additional funding to ensure the continued provision of free school meals during the pandemic and was the first government in the UK to provide provision during school holidays;

b) provided additional funding to ensure that children who are self-isolating or shielding continue to receive free school meal provision when they are not able to attend school;

c) provides funding of £19.50 per week to free school meal-eligible families, which is the most generous provision in the UK;

d) ensured that Wales remains the only country in the UK to have a universal free breakfasts in primary schools scheme;

e) has been recognised by the Education Policy Institute (EPI) for being successful in ensuring families eligible for free school meals during the pandemic had “access to timely and appropriate support”;

f) is committed to a rapid review of all available resource and policy options including the income threshold for receiving free school meals based on the Pupil Level Annual School Census (PLASC) data.

Amendment 1 moved.

Formally moved.

I think I must begin by asking why this is the third time we're debating Plaid's position on free school meals in as many months. This motion replicates an amendment to the budget debate on 9 February, just two weeks ago. Back in December, we agreed that if you had no recourse to public funds then you shouldn't also have to worry about relying on someone's discretion in order for your child to be able to eat, and we recognised also that some families who might not have struggled in normal circumstances to pay for their children's food have found it more difficult during the pandemic, and that we supported Welsh Government's extension of free school lunch provision during the holiday period while we were in the throes of all this. But I also said that we shouldn't slip quietly into perpetuity with what was on offer here, and that we did not agree with proposals on universal provision of free school meals, and, in all fairness, Helen Mary was gracious enough to recognise that this was down to different philosophies about how best to tackle child poverty, rather than an unwillingness to face and take action on the challenge. 

Universal free school meals includes breakfasts, which we reject for the reasons I set out in December, which means we cannot support the Welsh Government amendment, but, having said that, we do agree with paragraph 1 of that amendment, and acknowledge again the Government's COVID response on free school meals, as well as wishing it well with its review. But we will be supporting the motion unamended. Earlier this month, we agreed that any underspent budget this year should be targeted in a temporary way to help families in receipt of universal credit. There are families in receipt of universal credit for the first time because COVID has robbed them of their jobs, and who will remain on universal credit for the foreseeable part of the coming year because they cannot find work or better paid work. But I have to say, Plaid, it was touch and go that we are agreeing to this motion as it is, again, because Welsh Government has kindly drawn our attention to the Education Policy Institute report in its own amendment, and what it says about the four nations' spending decisions on education during the pandemic. One hundred and seventy four pounds being spent on education recovery for every pupil in England, but just £88 per pupil in Wales, despite Wales receiving the £5.2 billion extra from the UK Government that we've heard of. We've had the lowest number of home learning hours here too, especially in more disadvantaged families, although, of course, those families have suffered the most across the UK. And Welsh Government has also been less generous up until now with its support for childcare funding and additional learning needs per pupil. And that should worry all of us who believe that education is an essential part of the route out of poverty, seeing this huge discrepancy in catch-up investment, meaning that too many of tomorrow's parents will still be relying on free school meals however much Welsh Government fiddles about with the criteria. Thank you.

The Welsh Government have not covered themselves in glory on the issue of free school meals in the past year, and provision has been ad hoc, without a clear enough path of leadership. Since the start of the pandemic, my team have campaigned to ensure that children in South Wales West are given parity of access to the free school meal allowance, and all but three local authorities across Wales have opted to provide cash or vouchers to the value of £19.50 to cover five breakfasts and lunches. This is the right approach.

In Wales, a very small number of authorities have continued to stick with a parcel delivery service, such as Bridgend, justifying this in a number of ways that have not been supported by other authorities here in Wales. In England, as we all know, there was, rightly, an outcry about the variance of quality and value for money of food parcels, which led to a Government response to ensure access to cash or vouchers. In Wales, this was not the case. 

Over the past year, we have shared images of food parcel deliveries and the varying levels of quality. There's been particular criticism of the parcels being delivered to families in Bridgend from the Bristol-based supplier, The Real Wrap Company. Money is being profited on the back of poverty and hunger, as these parcels, on average, amount to £10 or £11 when compared to a supermarket purchase price. In response to my letter outlining my concerns, the Minister for Education referenced images of food being delivered to families in Caerphilly and compared those to those being delivered in England. Well, here is an image of a food parcel that has been sent out to those in Bridgend. An image not included in the correspondence from the education Minister. I wonder why that is. It doesn't suit their spin, because it simply isn't good enough. Surely, parents are better placed to shop for their families and meet their child's nutritional needs within the budget of cash or vouchers.

These packages don't either reflect the diversity of food that families may choose to cook with, or reflect varying dietary requirements. Or how about at least giving people the option available to them? The fact is, Welsh Government should have mandated cash or vouchers being an option for all in Wales from the very beginning. Welsh Government advise local authorities to use a number of systems in parallel, however, the Labour-led council in Bridgend have committed to food parcels as their only option. In the meantime, I have seen many Labour councillors, MSs and MPs berating the UK Government on social media for the way they are treating children in poverty in England, when Bridgend are offering the same thing. Families have told us that they are being treated like children, handed individual portions of jam to feed their children, and, on occasion, even out-of-date fruit and vegetables, as you can see from this picture here: out-of-date oranges.

Responses from the local authority have impacted the mental health of constituents. The stereotyping of families in poverty as neglectful must stop. One councillor even suggested to me that they didn't want to introduce vouchers or money in case the parents didn't actually spend the money on food. Are they that disrespectful of the intentions of parents that they wouldn't spend the money or vouchers on food for their own children?

Almost a quarter of Wales is living in poverty, and research from the Child Poverty Action Group has shown that, of the four nations in the UK, Wales has the least generous provision of free school meals. This debate is no political stunt. What we have is a first-world country where children are going hungry, and a Government that have the power to make sure all children are fed, but are not using that power. We need to ensure that this issue is dealt with for the future benefit of all our children. Diolch yn fawr iawn.

[Inaudible.]—because during this COVID pandemic, what we have seen exposed are the searing inequalities that still exist in our society and the impact that they've had on the quality of life, the health and education of some of the poorest in our society.

Can I start by commending those in our communities who've done so much during the pandemic to ensure that, in addition to the financial support made available from the Welsh Government to families entitled to free school meals, they nevertheless raised funds to provide and deliver food boxes to those families to make sure the children did not go hungry? In Tonyrefail, Leanne Parsons and her team of volunteers from Tonyrefail Community School prepared and delivered hundreds of boxes every day all the way through the summer; Councillors Maureen Webber and Carl Thomas, local community activists in Rhydyfelin and Hawthorn, and all of the local food banks that have become so vital in recent years.

School meals are iconic. Under the previous income support regime, entitlement to free school meals was clear, but since the introduction of universal credit, there's been a replacement financial qualifying criterion of £7,400 net of tax and excluding any benefits received, and we do now need to review that. In Wales, we've ensured that almost 86,000 pupils receive free school meals or an equivalent of £19.50 per week. As more pupils return to school and as more families become dependent on universal credit, we must guarantee a principle that I believe we can all agree with in this Senedd: that no child in Wales should go hungry.

Now, I do want to commend the action taken by the Welsh Government, which has led the way in the UK by providing £50 million of funding to ensure free school meals during holidays and the further £23 million that has been put in place to extend this provision.

The motion tabled is very timely, albeit, in my view, too unspecific, because it does not give the clear assurances that we want to see and aspire to, and which can be delivered. The amendment establishes the principle that it is unacceptable for any child to go hungry. The final section of the amendment is the most important, because it is the clearest commitment to action. It commits the Senedd and the Welsh Government to reviewing all of the sources and policy options, including the income threshold, which is vital to fulfilling this principle.

We all know the cost could be around £100 million per year, so in that review it is vital that we focus on all the causes of poverty in our communities and ensure that any redirection of funding does not impact on other vital projects, such as the Welsh Government's free school breakfasts programme, which is just as important in ensuring that our children are not hungry when they come to school and whilst in school.

Llywydd, I'm sure we all aspire to the principle that one day school meals will become a universal benefit for all as part of the education system. Until then, despite the Tory financial austerity we are again likely to face, we must do everything we possibly can to maximise entitlement around this principle that no child should go hungry. This is a matter of absolute importance to all of us on the Labour side of the Senedd and in all other parties, I'm sure. I'm sure that it is something that we can all equally aspire to and unite around, so I welcome this clear commitment from the Welsh Government to enable us to achieve this. Diolch, Llywydd.

While we agree with the sentiment behind Plaid's motion, we cannot support it. We do need to end child hunger, however, we will not do that by extending free school meals to all children, which is the logical conclusion of the motion before us. We have limited resources and they have to be targeted at those most in need. We will, therefore, be supporting the Welsh Government's amendment.

I'm sure that every single one of us wishes to do all that we can to end the scourge of child hunger. The UK is home to 54 billionaires, a nation where the ultra rich make more in a minute or an hour than most people earn in a year, yet one third of children live in poverty. Far too many children go to bed hungry and free school meals are often their only reliable source of nutrition. I welcome the Welsh Government's additional investment in free school meals, and for being the first UK home nation to extend free meal entitlement during the holidays. And I also welcome their commitment to a review of the income threshold for receiving free school meals. We must not allow a single child in Wales to go hungry.

However, we must also address the elephant in the room: the rise of childhood obesity and the lack of nutrition. According to the Food Foundation, a staggering 94 per cent of children consume less than three to five portions of veg a day, and Wales is one of the worst UK nations for fruit and veg consumption. It's hardly surprising when we consider that healthy foods are three times more expensive than less-healthy foods for the equivalent number of calories. The poorest fifth of UK households would need to spend around 40 per cent of their disposable income on food to meet Eatwell guidance. We must, therefore, ensure that school meals meet and exceed Eatwell guidance. I also urge Governments across the UK to work together to make healthy food cheaper. Diolch yn fawr.

The Minister for Education, Kirsty Williams.

Thank you very much, Presiding Officer, and I thank colleagues for their contributions to the debate this afternoon. Can I say that I am very proud of how the Welsh Government and local authorities have reacted to the unprecedented challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, ensuring that those who rely on free school meals have not had to go without whilst they are not in school?

We have now made available up to £60.5 million in additional funding this financial year for free school meals, and building on this we will provide and additional £23.3 million to extend free school meals in school holidays for the entirety of 2021-22. Free school meal provision remains a key priority, and our aim is to make sure that this support continues to be made available to families who need it the most.

In 2019 we estimated that if no earning threshold was put in place by the time that universal credit was fully rolled out, around half of Wales's pupils would be eligible for free school meals in Wales, compared to 16 per cent in 2017. With no additional funding made available to Welsh Government, this would have necessitated some very difficult funding choices elsewhere within the education portfolio and the wider Government, and we are yet to hear what people think should be cut to afford such a change.

During the pandemic, there has been a significant increase in families taking up free school meal entitlement because of the economic crisis that COVID has also brought, and the number of pupils who are now in receipt of provision has increased in just a matter of months from around 91,000 to now over 105,000. Members will recall that, in December, we calculated that to provide free school meals to every child whose parents receive universal credit would cost an additional £67 million a year. Further work has been done to update these figures, with the latest calculations now indicating that the additional cost would be between £85 million and £100 million, even before taking account of the impact of the pandemic.

But I think it's also important for colleagues in the Chamber not to forget that increasing the eligibility of free school meals also has a knock-on to other policy areas. For example, a rough estimate of extending free school meals to all pupils in families claiming universal credit would result in an additional pupil development grant cost of between £220 million and £250 million. Of course, it may be the intention of Plaid Cymru to do away with the PDG or to cut the worth for each individual pupil of PDG, but the fact remains that a rough estimate is that this policy could cost an additional £350 million a year.

In a similar debate in December, Plaid said that this would just be the first step towards their policy of offering universal school meals, and my question today is the question it was then: where do you expect this money to be found? Because I have to say, it simply doesn't wash that this money is found from the additional funding this year's budget contains. What about future years? The money that was referred to is one-off funding. We would still need to find hundreds of millions of pounds for future years. To be clear, that means cuts in other areas. I of course recognise the importance of free school meals in supporting children and families. If I didn't, we wouldn't have taken the steps that the Welsh Government already has. The changes needed when we introduced the threshold were incredibly complex, but we are absolutely committed to undertake a rapid review of the threshold when new data becomes available.

With regard to other parts of today's motion, calling for the criteria to include families with no recourse to public funds, I agree that this is really very important. Whilst recognising that not all people with no recourse to public funds are on low incomes, I do recognise that, for many, many of those families with no recourse, without a doubt, they are in need of support. I can therefore confirm that we will consider making formal amendments to this complex piece of legislation once the impact of COVID-19 has eased. In the meantime, we continue to strongly encourage all local authorities to exercise their discretion to allow the children of these families to benefit from free-school-meal provision. I appreciate that local authorities are always worried about their own individual budgets, but let me be absolutely clear to all local authorities this afternoon: they are able to claim from the Welsh Government in respect of additional costs if they take this step forward to support these families.

Llywydd, to finish, this is about choices, and where we should target our resources is always a question that we as a Government are constantly challenging and asking ourselves. Only today I am pleased to announce additional funding to extend our PDG access scheme to be now worth over £10 million. This is funding that will support our most disadvantaged learners and help more families meet the costs of school uniform, school equipment and now electronic devices. I can assure Members that, within the limited budget provided to us by the UK Government, we here in this Government will continue to ensure that resources are spent in the best possible and the most targeted way. Thank you.

Helen Mary Jones to reply to the debate.

I'm grateful to everybody who has taken part in this important debate. Time does not allow me to respond to all of every Member's contributions, but there are some points that I feel that I do need to make, particularly in response to Mick Antoniw and to the Minister.

Of course, we'd all commend the voluntary work that Mick Antoniw describes, but does he really think these families and their children should be depending on charity? I hardly think that that's consistent with a person's socialist principles. He says that we all agree to the principle that no child in Wales should be going hungry. Well, I have to say that the Child Poverty Action Group, supported by the Bevan Foundation and that hotbed of nationalist politics the National Education Union, estimate that 70,000 children are going hungry today. So, it's no good us talking about the principle. I can't imagine that anybody in this room or practically anybody in Wales thinks that, in principle, children shouldn't be fed, but those children are not being fed today. I'll repeat what other Members have already said: research from the Child Poverty Action Group shows that in terms of access to free school meals, the Welsh Government has a tighter means test and less generous universal infant provision than other UK nations. That's not us saying that; that is the most respected research and influencing bodies in this field.

I was very pleased, I must say, to hear what the Minister has said about those with no recourse to public funds, and I think it's very helpful that she has reiterated that local authorities who make those discretionary decisions will be reimbursed. That was clear before; it's nice to hear it reiterated. But other than that, I have to say to her that this debate is not about what the Government has done, it is about what the Government has not done. It's interesting every time we have this debate—and I do take Suzy Davies's point, we've talked about this many times, but we will keep talking about it until something gets done. If you look at the tone of the Government's amendment this time, it's softened from the Government's amendment last time. So, I make no apology for banging on about wanting hungry children to be fed; I've been doing it for 40 years and will propose to continue doing so until we can.

The Government moves the financial goalposts about what we're including every time we discuss this, and about the risks, and that's a legitimate way for them to respond to the debate. Of course, Kirsty Williams's position is honourable and consistent; Kirsty doesn't present herself as a socialist. But I have to say to the Labour Members in this Chamber and those Labour MPs who've been making statements about this today that you can't look both ways on this. The people of Wales will not be fooled. They will not believe you when you say, 'We want to extend the criteria, but we can't', because now we know that the money is there. You can't keep looking both ways on this matter and expect to get away with it. And while you are looking both ways on this matter, 70,000—well, 76,000 if we include those will no access to public resources—are not being funded. 

I'll reiterate, Llywydd: the tightest means test and the least generous infant provision of any UK nation. Is this something that any of us in this Chamber can be proud of, and is this something that Labour Members are prepared to tolerate? Of course, politics is about priorities, and I can assure this Chamber today that feeding those hungry children—children that the Tory UK Government has acknowledged are poor and in need of support because their families are receiving universal credit—will be a priority for a Plaid Cymru Government. And if you won't feed them, it's time to get out of the way and make room for a Government that will.

The proposal is to agree the motion without amendment. Does any Member object? [Objection.] Yes, there is an objection, and therefore I will defer voting under this item until voting time.

Voting deferred until voting time.

That brings us to voting time, but we will take a short break to ensure that the technology is working properly. So, we'll take a break.

Plenary was suspended at 17:06.

The Senedd reconvened at 17:10, with the Llywydd in the Chair.